Dan Stevens' Broadway play 'a hit'

Downton Abbey star Dan Steven's Broadway debut is officially a hit, after producers of the show revealed they'll make their money back.

The British actor - who made his name playing Matthew Crawley in the ITV show until he was killed off at the end of last year - stars alongside Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain in the The Heiress.

The show's producers revealed the production will recoup its $3 million dollar cost by the time the show closes on Saturday. By then, The Heiress will have played 27 previews and 117 regular performances.

The revival, based on the Henry James novel Washington Square, also stars Judith Ivey and David Strathairn and is directed by Moises Kaufman.

Jessica is currently on a high, having earned an Oscar nomination for Zero Dark Thirty, while Dan has been cast in the much-hyped Julian Assange biopic, co-starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Other recent shows to recoup on Broadway include the Al Pacino-led revival of Glengarry Glen Ross and Disney's Newsies.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.